Democrats, MAGA Republicans Share Common Ground on War Powers
There are more areas of common ground between many Democrats like me and MAGA Republicans – in disagreement with Donald Trump – than most people might think. One current example is the growing opposition to the president’s military interventions, without congressional authorization or meaningful consultation with Congress.
I have heard core Trump voters voice the same concerns about such unilateral use of power leading to “endless wars” that I and many other progressive Democrats share.
Let’s start with the need to read the Constitution strictly when it comes to the president’s authority to launch war (defined as significant military action over a period of time, as required under Congress’ War Powers Resolution of 1973).
In a book I’ve written, due to be published in April, I tell the story of a “liberal” professor at Yale Law School who was characterized by many of his faculty colleagues as a “conservative” because he opposed the Earl Warren-led Supreme Court, which he viewed as too willing to stretch the Constitution to achieve its desired policy goals. Although Professor Alexander Bickel described himself as an “FDR-Harry Truman liberal,” he was worried about the precedent the Warren court was setting. “Someday,” he told me at the time, “you may find a Supreme Court that has a more conservative political philosophy – who look to achieve results rather than strictly applying the Constitution – and then you will be unhappy but cannot do anything about it, since they are unelected lifetime members of the Supreme Court.”
His words have proven prophetic. Over time I’ve come to recognize the wisdom of Professor Bickel’s (and Justice Antony Scalia’s) support for strict constructionism. And not only because of decisions that haven’t been decided to my liking.
Despite Trump’s appointment of three justices to the current Supreme Court, resulting in many 6-3 decisions supporting a more “conservative” result than I would have preferred, the wisdom of intellectual consistency by at least some of Trump’s appointees was demonstrated in the recent 6-3 decision striking down Trump’s imposition of tariffs without congressional authorization.
The essence of the need for a check on the president’s unilateral power to engage in war and commit U.S. military power alone was best explained by James Madison in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1798:
The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the Legislature. [See here.]
So now I challenge my fellow Democrats to recognize that we have common ground with Trump’s strongest “MAGA” supporters in challenging this administration’s attack on Iran – contrary to the “war powers” limitations on president, requiring congressional authorization, as stated in Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
I also find myself more and more sympathetic with those in the Trump voter base who have long been skeptical, not only of what they call the “Deep State,” but also of a commander in chief who embraces the “imperial presidency” theory of executive power.
Now we hear Trump speaking in terms of “nation building” and “regime change” in Iran (as well as Venezuela – is Cuba next?), again contrary to Trump’s own previous statements.
I have become a strict constructionist, yes. Now is the time for my fellow Democrats, especially those holding liberal views like me, to find common ground with Trump’s core base voters in opposing this usurpation of congressional prerogative.
This is a moment, ironically, when Trump’s impulses can demonstrate the common ground shared by red states and blue states, pro-Trump Republicans and anti-Trump Democrats.
It’s time for both sides who disagree on so much to agree on this: At the very least, however much we support the death of the evil Iranian leader and wish for a free and democratic Iran that honors human rights and repudiates terrorism, there must be presidential compliance with the Constitution – James Madison’s core principles of “checks and balances” that have preserved our democracy for soon to be 250 years. And to join together to demand that President Trump at least strictly follow the spirit and letter of the 1973 War Powers Resolution Act requiring congressional consultation, public hearings, and ultimately, congressional authorization – or else, all military operations in Iran must cease.